Brisbane Builders...are they ok?

How do you rate performance of Builders who built a house

  • Great

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • Good

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • More trouble than I expected

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • Unreliable

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Anightmare

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Ok but I wouldnt use them again

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Ok and I would probably use them again

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Expensive

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Reasonable

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • Never again

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Troublsome but worth it in the end

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • Honest

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Dishonest

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Integrity is thei middle name

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Be wary

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • be very wary

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Very Impressive and Professional

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .
R

redsquash

Have you had a good or bad experience with these builders in Queensland
Coral Homes
Alliance Homes
Aus Homes

GJ Gardner Homes
Ausbuild

Newstart Homes
AV Jennings

Urban Homes
Perry Homes

Orbit Homes Mancorp Homes

Traditional Queenslanders
National Builders Group

Ownit Homes
Mark Wust Constructions

Civic Steel
HomesHallmark Homes

PlanBuild Homes
Fresh Homes

For those of us just starting out on selecting a builder, some feedback from those who have built in the past would be of great assistance.
Any tips along the way could also be added.

Expressing an opinion about a company,
and stating something, as a fact ,about a company,
are 2 completly different things.

It would be good to know the names of companies people had good or bad expeinces with.
That is one big advantage of having an internet
Not to get too paranoid but, if comments are made in the public interest then they are quite entitled to be made.
 
Plantation homes (big popular one previously Henley)

- Cheap, never again, poor workmanship, prices have gone up a lot, a few major problems after building, after service is poor, dodgy trades people, a one stop colour selection centre which was handy and had loads of samples but the colour selection girls obviously did not have much experience in that area at all. I doubt they are qualified consultants which caused us to choose an ugly render paint for the house

GJ Gardner

- Unprofessional, signed contract, paid $3k deposit, then a few weeks later they increased prices of more than $30k!! forfeited the deposit. we were ready to go to council. waste of time

AV Jennings

- Very happy, fast, easy to deal with, build 2 houses next door to ecah other and they were both constructed at the same time in approx 3-4 mths so very happy, good reputation, and a nice gift at the end :) A professional, qualified colour consultant

no problem since hand over. you can advertise a jennings house for rnetal or sale and possibly command a premium coz of its reputation.

Tamawood

- Very quick regardless of what they tell you (told me 6 mths build but only took 3 mths), handy CD ROM with hundreds of designs and prices, quality is good, even the inclusions for comfort level (cheapest) is good, very cheap, no problems since hand over.

put in persective...the house was revalued $80k more by the bank on completion...and that's for the comfort level! they actually have better inclusions than a lot of other builders i.e solar heated panel, tinted windows, dishwasher etc

Coral Homes

Value, flexible to changes and they don't mark up prices, rendering is the cheapest by far! $5000 for up to 30sq lowset full house or $7k for two storey, always have great special offers which can save quite a bit for upgrades, nice office people, efficient.

no central colour selection so you have to drive all over the place to pick tiles, roof tiles, laminates etc have to do your own retaining walls inc engineers design and council approval if higher than 1 metre (other builders do it for you). very professional colour consultant.

House is about to commence building so can't comment on quality but they are efficient. The only thing holding building up now is Westpac! Settled for block in end of jan so 3 mths to site which is pretty quick. Although received a threat today that if Westpac doesn't hurry up, they will start chraging us delay costs!! not happy.


Indigo Homes (very popular, won a few awards)
didn't get to council stage, forfeited $2k deposit, arrogant maybe coz you deal with the top person, we wanted to put in a split system and because it was in the middle of the room, the wiring had to be done at frame stage but they would not allow any contractors that's not their own, but when the gave us a quote, it was just ridiculous...I hate being ripped off. then at colour selection the lady was very rude, we had a young baby and she made the mistake of double booking and then trying to hurry us and getting annoyed with us...the most awkward experience. We did colour selection in 20 mins. there was just too many unpleasantries to continue on a relationship. they should be more customer oriented and provide a better service.

Just based on our experience.
 
I've been dealing with Alliance homes for my PPOR that is being constructed, in particular Ainslie from Northlakes display village. They are so good that we are also going to build 4 more with them within the next 6 months, 3 of the blocks settle in early June. Also site costs are reasonable our 'H' sites only costed an extra $6000 compared with $10-12k quoted by other builders.

I feel like a spoilt child, Ainslie makes us feel like we are his most important customers (but he is like that to everyone from the moment you walk in the door).

The homes are beautifully designed and they will allow changes to be made (very flexible). The prices are very competetive also. I would recommend them.


Coral

One of the girls from work was building with them, the messed up the plans twice so council rejected them both mistakes were simple, as a result construction started in late Feburay instead of October costing them extra in land payments.

Before we found Alliance homes we were going to build the Hamilton from Coral homes, the problem was they were very inflexible with changes and the site costs were extraordinary.


TAMAWOOD.

is basically mail order homes, great to look at plans online but difficult to get good service. 1.5% of conract price to make any changes, very expensive site costs, I don't think the finish is as good as other builders. Seems cheap but with all the added up grades ends up being almost as much as competitors.

Have to make appointmnets to see sales people even for simple things that would take 2 minutes on the phone.
 
Letiha - actually 1.5% isn't much for Tamawood considering their houses are still far cheaper than other builders. As far as quality, I can tell you that the same trades gang for Tamawood also works for some of the other much more expensive builders. but it's only value for money if you go for the 'comfort' inclusions. If you go for more expensive inclusions then you might as well build with someone else.

If people stop to have a look, the bathroom and kitchen in comfort is actually nicer than the next level up.

The only thing I ever upgrade internally is the doors. Stamford doors looks much better than flush.

It's actually what you do extra to the house once it's finished that adds value. Nice tiles, nice lighting, 3 in 1 bathroom light and exhaust, feature walls, chrome fans, air conditioning, crimsafe security, wooden blinds, nice garden area etc

This is where you have the edge over builder's spec homes. With spec homes, it's usually just turf, oyster lights, no fans, no a/c, and verticals.

I can't really fault Tamawood. Every single drawdown payment, Westpac were 2 payments behind and they were fine with it. The tradies were really good and gave us huge discounts to do additional work. The tiler in particular was excellent and so was the painters. The building supervisor was happy to meet our subcontractors onsite and open the door for them on numerous occasions. There was a miscommunication and we were charged $600 to paint the front door a different colour so after lodging a complaint, we were given a $1000 credit and they were extremely apologetic! Basically, we got the most for our money. We spent $290k for a $430k house. If we had used another builder it would cost $350k and house would still be valued at $430k.

I will definately use them again.

Never heard of alliance homes but will check them out. thanks for the great feedback!
 
Hi redsquash
Good post but I can't see any value in having the poll:confused:. You have 17 choices, a lot of which are very similar... You could have done it in 3 or 4 choices. For example:
1) Great/ very impressive/ honest/ integrity is their middle name
2) Good/ ok...
3) Be wary/ be very wary/ dishonest/ never again/ a nightmare/ unreliable

Also if you have dealt with different builders, which one do you choose? Ask yourself, what is it you are trying to get out of the poll? You will be able to get much better information from the responses because they talk about specific builders.
All the best with it
Steve
 
yo yo ma said:
Hi redsquash
Good post but I can't see any value in having the poll:confused:. You have 17 choices, a lot of which are very similar... You could have done it in 3 or 4 choices. For example:
1) Great/ very impressive/ honest/ integrity is their middle name
2) Good/ ok...
3) Be wary/ be very wary/ dishonest/ never again/ a nightmare/ unreliable

Also if you have dealt with different builders, which one do you choose? Ask yourself, what is it you are trying to get out of the poll? You will be able to get much better information from the responses because they talk about specific builders.
All the best with it
Steve
Click to expand...

I didn't expect such excellent replies so quickly.Thanks girls

Hi steve.
I am thinking of building and not being present in the state of construction I want to try to minimize the problems that naturally occur when attempting a big project. I have never built before but have known a few who did including a collegue whose builder went bankrupt...........not a pretty sight and the mess went on for ever
Yes the poll uses similar words but it was 130 or 2am in the morning and I just wanted to get a general idea of peoples experience. Nightmare and wary are words for example , which are not the same and it just allowed people to have a wider choice if they so choose.
 
PlanBuild Homes :mad:


My Uncle and Aunt had 2 new houses on the go on the northside of Brissy, both signed up at the same time, one with Jennings the other with Planbuild.

The one with Jennings is finished and will be a nice as a renter, after the overspray and a few other relatively minor things get sorted and tenants are moving in this weekend where as the one from Planbuild still has not been started.

They and the bank are spewing.:mad:

BB
 
Ownit homes

Hi Redsquash

We've been to the Ownit display home at Halpine Lakes. Quite good - would be happy to build one to live in. Base price was quite reasonable (haven't gotten a quote, so not sure of the total cost). They only do 2 storey houses at the moment - sales consultant mentioned that they may be doing 1 storey designs latter in the year.

Brays
 
Hi All,

We are currently using House and Land Design for our 2 properties and are very happy with their service. Colour selection was made easy and the workmanship has been great. We have found the builders honest and reliable to deal with.

Would recommend House and Land Design to anyone looking to build.

Ems
 
Hi EMS,
Land and Design have a reasonable web site and I contacted them.
I was impressed, but they dont build on the North side of Brisbane.

Does any one have any other information
 
When using project builders has the individual had any luck in modifying the standard contract to build. I know architects generally wouldn't accept the HIA of Queensland contract
A builder I approached would only use the standard HIA of Queensland contract.It seems very lopsided from my initial reading.
In other words the builder has lots of protection and rights.
Up to a point this is very understandable. even so I would like to know how other's who have entered into the contract to build faired in trying to modify some or any conditions?
 
Adenbrook homes...any comments?

Adenbrook homes ?
has anyone used this company?
How did things go?
They have a fairly quick build time and reasonable designs from their web site
 
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